Andy Stanley did a FANTASTIC job last night launching us off last night...
Thesis:
We are the stewards of the message of eternal AND of a better life. Can you imagine a world or life without Christianity and the church? What we take for granted as 'normal' is actually the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The alternative leads to sin and chaos. Text: Galatians 5:16-24
Main Session #2
Jeff Manion
The Land In Between
+ jr higher trying on different identities - welcome to the land in between
+ after years of fertility followed by a miscarriage - welcome to the land in between
+ bad week marriage turns into a bad years marriage - welcome to the land in between
What is God doing? What is God trying to produce?
+ Between Egypt & The Land Of Promise...Sinai Desert
+ Exodus 3:7 - you're seen, heard, I'm concerned! - God
+ Exodus 3:8 - out of...into! No mention of the "land in between".
+ God has deep affection for you and will not keep you from the desert.
Crisis:
1. Water (Exodus 15)
+ 15:24 - bitter water. desert.
+ God makes the bitter sweet.
2. Food
+ They complain. Prefer Egypt. God provide Manna
3. Water Part II
+ We're sick of tired of the land in between. I'm sick of...I'm sick of...
+ fertile soil for transformation growth OR faith goes to die. It's your move!
+ Will you trust ME? -God
+ How can you represent God in Canaan the God you don't know or trust? THe land in between is faith school.
+ I wrote checks at baby dedication and God cashed them at 18 years old!
+ We are not raising children...we are raising adults...child raisers...
+ Will you honor & respect when you receive no honor or respect
+ Time heals all wounds - it doesn't.
+ choices of the heart are made in the land in between! grace or bitterness?
+ Invite trust when complaints tries to move in. They are incompatible roommates. One will push the other out. Good movement pushes out bad movement.
+ the soil we detest produces the fruit we so desperately want.
+ Identify your land in between!
+ Emerge as a person of grace.
Prayer for You/Us:
Lord, thank you for all the 'land in between' moments, which created opportunities for the transformational growth we've experienced. Thank you for the wisdom, revelation and faith to see beyond the temporal. You are the potter and we are the clay. Please continue to form and shape us into the vessels of honor - instruments fit for the Master's use. We are your people made for your glory! Be glorified in and through us - and all that is connected and entrusted to us...
May the land in between make us better and not bitter...all things work together for the good of them who are called according to your purpose. Romans 8:28
In Jesus Name...
Ralph
